Rescue at Riovanes
by Myst Knight
Summary: What if Ramza had managed to rescue Alma at Riovanes Castle? A divergence fic. Ramza/Alma


Ramza spat his disgust, as his sword seemed to glance off the beast's giant horns. The Zodiac demon Velias, a monster in the shape of a ram, stood undaunted by the young man's mediocre attacks, and even now was preparing another assault on his party. It wrapped its four arms around itself and shook, building up another burst of demonic power. Its sunken eyes seemed to exude darkness, and soon has amassed enough magic for another round of its deadly "Titan" magic.

"Damn!" Ramza cursed, bringing his sword up in a defensive stance. "This is taking too long! I have to get to Alma...!"

Velias growled and opened up its arms to reveal its full, horrifying visage, glowing with a sickly, green light. "Bear down with land...arrroo!" and the monster's summoning chant was cut off mid-incantation, as a shining, armored figure leapt out from behind Ramza, slashing true and cutting off one of Velias' curved horns. The beast roared in pain, turning to its assailant with murder in its gaze. Agrias Oaks, sword in hand, was now facing down the Zodiac demon, carrying a countenance borne from Holy Knight training.

"Agrias...!" Ramza sputtered, his eyes wide at the sudden rescue.

"A Knight's duty is to his charge, first and foremost!" Agrias snapped, shooting her commander and friend a sharp look. "Rescue your sister! We'll handle it here!"

Ramza hesitated for a moment, his sword arm drifting to his side.

Agrias' eyes flashed with fury. "MOVE!"

This shook Ramza out of his trance, and he quickly darted past Velias while the monster focused all its attentions on Agrias. Running deeper into the castle, he took a quick look at the young woman, a knight whom never failed to be his most reliable compatriot. "You have my thanks, Agrias!" he tossed out to his ally, who nodded curtly as she brandished her sword in preparation of a Holy Sword skill. As Agrias and the rest of his unit prepared to square off against the monstrous Velias, Ramza sped through the hallways of the castle, his sister once again entering the forefront of his mind. "Alma...!"

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 **Rescue at Riovanes**

 **A Final Fantasy Tactics Fanfiction by Myst Knight**

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Disclaimer: Final Fantasy Tactics is owned by Square Enix. I write this without consent, and am making no money off of it.

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 _This story is rated T for Violence, and Ideologically sensitive material (forbidden sibling romance). For OLDER TEEN AND UP._

 _No offense intended by the controversial content (and as always, don't try this at home!)_

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 **Conditions for Winning: Save Alma!**

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Death and decay was everywhere, a casserole of carnage spilt over the remnants of royalty. The formerly opulent confines of the conference room was strewn with the slaughter of soldiers, their bodies emitting a rancid stink that filled the premises like the shroud of death. Only one glimmer of unblemished humanity was present in the gloom: Alma Beoulve, kneeling down before the slain Izlude Tingel and offering a final prayer to God. With her hands clasped together and her skirts pooled around her, the young girl was the picture of saintly benevolence, her purity only enhanced by the candle on the table that was the only source of light in this room.

The pony-tailed lass sighed as she opened her eyes, brushing a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes. Her heart ached for the lives sacrificed to the mysterious monster lurking in the darkness. Even though Izlude had assisted in kidnapping her from beyond her brother's protection, he had never been cruel to her, and had always looked out for her while they both sat in captivity at Riovanes Castle. Alma's only wish was that the gentle light of God would embrace him on his way to the next life, so he could rest in peace.

The footfall of a metal sabaton clanked from the entrance, and Alma gasped as she scrambled up to catch sight of the intruder. Vormav Tingel was standing before her, decked out in traditional Shrine Knight garb, though there was nothing holy about this man. "So here you are," Vormav said with a sneer, his expression entirely unlike that of his late son's. "I'll send you to the other side, too."

Alma raised her hands to her mouth, as her heart rose to her chest. Slowly, she backed away from the impending threat, though she knew there was nothing but a table and a stone wall behind her. There was something unearthly about this man, and she had little doubt that he would make good on his promise to end her life. (Brother Ramza, where are you?!) she thought to herself, as the man continued his approach with all the certainty of the rising moos.

"Don't fear," he growled, reaching out with a gauntlet. "You won't suffer..." Alma recoiled from his impending touch.

As his metal-encased fingers hovered above the young maiden's shoulder, an ethereal blue aura blasted out from somewhere within his Shrine Knight robes. Alma shielded her face from the sudden light, the shocking happenstance allowing her take a second step away from the surprised Vormav. When she lowered her hands from her face, Vormav was now looking at a stone in his hand, which Alma now recognized as a Zodiac stone. "Why, why is Virgo responding?" he wondered, then looked at the young girl with an awe reserved for that of Ajora himself. "You...can't be..."

In a flash, Vormav lurched forward and grabbed Alma around the waist, causing her to yelp in fear. "Very nice! I didn't expect to meet you here!" he crowed, as Alma winced from his suddenly ecstatic expression. "I thought it would take one-hundred years to find you! I never dreamed you were the one!"

Ensnared within the man's sleely grip, Alma struggled futilely, her ponytail flopping back and forth as she tried to free herself. "Stop!" she cried. "Let go of me!"

The Shrine Knight grinned, and pulled back a metal fist. "No need to fear." he said. "I won't kill you. Now come here!" With that, his gauntlet tightened, as he prepared to drive a blow deep into Alma's gut.

But just before all hope was lost, a clear voice, strong as the entire force of Hokuten Knights, called out from the entrance-way. "Let go of my sister!"

"Eh?" Vorvav turned with a scowl, as the two of them caught sight of the new arrival.

"Brother Ramza!" Alma cried out, an explosive smile overtaking her features, despite her terror.

Standing on the upper level, with mercenary armor flashing in the dim candlelight, was Ramza Beoulve, his blond hair and crystalline eyes giving him the visage of a warrior angel. With sword drawn and eyes narrowed, he was well-tempered and battle-ready, his focus only on the man who held his sister. Edging forward in his battle stance, he raised his blade high for an overhead strike. "Release her, and I will let you live!" he cried out. "Resist, and die like a dog!"

Vormav growled, and lifted Alma with ungodly strength, taking her almost two feet off the ground. "So you've come, bastard Beoulve," he said as Alma continued to struggle in his arm, her legs and skirts flailing. "I am surprised Velius did not hold you long, but no matter. You'll die regardless."

"Help!" Alma screamed, her hands trying to break Vormav's fierce hold on her. "Ramza!"

Upon hearing his sister's pleas, Ramza wasted not a second more, and launched himself as his opponent. Using a technique their brother Zalbag had taught him about turning a hostage situation around, Ramza was already within Vormav's inner circle of defense, and executing a sudden strike at Vormav's arm. As they sword dug into metal and flesh, the Shrine Knight growled in pain, releasing Alma as he stumbled backwards onto the conference table. The girl fell into a heap on the floor, and a moment later, her brother was at her side, looking for any bruise or injury.

"Alma, are you alright?" he asked, his fear bringing an unintended harshness to his tone as she pulled her to her feet.

Alma took the young man's hand, struggling to regain balance. "Brother, thank you," she told him, her eyes shining with gratitude and devotion for her older brother. "I...look out!"

At Alma's sudden outburst, Ramza whirled around to find Vormav with his sword drawn, holding onto his bloody shoulder. Ramza was not cowed, and took a step forward, with Alma coming to his side. Thrusting out a hand to keep Alma back and shield her, he brought his own blood-stained sword up to bear once more. "Alma is free now, and you've lost!" he cried, his sword reflecting the fury in his eyes. "Leave now, and you can treat your wound before it becomes fatal."

"It is of no hindrance." Vormav shook his head, staring at the two with an unreadable expression. "Bloodletting only hastens my powers."

Ramza said nothing, but continued to scowl at his opponent.

The Shrine Knight reached into his robes, and pulled out a yellow stone bearing the Zodiac symbol 'Leo.' "I wished I had more time to see about the girl's legacy," he said, as the stone began to emit an eerie light. "I'll have to settle for killing you before I get to her."

"What are you talking about?" Ramza demanded, his fist tightening.

But the radiating glow had already enveloped Vormav, and a flurry of light and wind was filling the conference room in its entirely. Ramza winced, and stood his ground as he faced off against this mysterious power, keeping himself between Alma and Vormax. Alma let out a cry as the wind enveloped her, whipping up her skirts and petticoats to reveal her bare thighs. Still a lady even in the most dire of circumstances, Alma desperately held down her skirts with her hands, keeping them from exposing her underpants until the winds and lights subsided, revealing a new threat symbolizing all the malice of Vormav fully formed.

Standing before Ramza and Alma, at a height of over twelve feet. was a muscular, bipedal lion, bearing jagged horns and the gaze of the Devil incarnate. The wrath emanating from this beast overtook its somewhat noble features, as it clenched and un-clenched its massive paws in preparation for the bloodbath. Alma screamed in horror at this unsightly abomination. "It's a monster!" she cried, clenching her fists together in front of her face.

The beast formally known as Vormav Tingel regarded its powerful physique with calm acceptance. "I am Hashmalum. the Regulator," he declared, bearing down on the two siblings with his full height. "And you, Ramza Beoulve, will be the first blood to awaken Ajora!"

Ramza snarled, clenching his sword and making a beeline for the lion-demon.

"Ramza, he's too strong!" Alma yelled out, reaching out futilely for her beloved brother. "Run away from here!"

But Ramza had already enter combat with the Zodiac monstrosity, slamming his sword directly at the creature's head. Hashmalum smiled thinly, and put up a hand to block the blow, Ramza's blade glancing off the monster's palm like a kite shield. Converting his smile into a death grin, Hashmalum flung out a claw to rake Ramza's face, but the young lad dancing under it, coming back with a spinning slash. The Zodiac beast edged away from the attack and brought a double hammer fist down aimed for Ramza's back, but Ramza raised his sword just in time to deflect the blow.

As the two combatants circled around each other in their deathly dance, Alma trembled by the table, her legs quaking with fear for herself as well as her brother. Yet, she never thought to run, keeping her gaze firmly on Ramza as he found for their lives with all his strength. (I've got to do something!) she thought to herself, her mind finally settling on a plan of action. (I must! I must!) Steeling her fraying nerves, she raised her hands to the ceiling, and began chanting.

Ramza swore, a slash from Hashmalum's left hand scrapping across his shoulder. Ignoring the white hot flash of pain, he followed through with a side swipe that glanced against the monster's stomach. With Hashmalum backing away from a moment, Ramza chanced a look at Alma, who was performing an incantation derived from the Orbonnne's Monestery's teachings. "Alma, no!" he shouted at her, as Hashmalum began his approach once more. "Get out of here!"

But Alma continued chanting, summoning up a brisk wind of holy power. Her skirts and petticoats flapped in the breeze of sacred energy, and her hands were glowing white. With her ponytail sailing towards the ceiling, Alma opened righteous eyes full of heavenly purity. "For the sake of Ivalice's love and liberty," she recited, flinging her arms to the sky. "MBarrier!"

The monster roared, and thrust out a fist to crack Ramza's jaw. But it was too late, as a green forcefield had encased Ramza in its luminescence, forcing Hashmalum's attack back as if he had hit a wall. Ramza stared for a monent as his sister, who was glowing with holy power. Still, he was not one to let an opportunity go unexploited, and continued setting about his attack on Hashmalum, whose craggy mouth was open in astonishment.

"Is this..." Hashmalum mumbled, his bushy brow raising. "Is this the power of the Bloody Angel?"

Ramza ignored the pondering of the beast, and delivered a crosswise cut to Hashmalum's chest. Growling, the lion-demon tried to regain its footing, but the young mercenary continued to claw away at his opponent, inflicting slash after slash on the monster's muscled chest. Hashmalum bellowed in pain, and brought up its paw for a final strike. "I won't fall to such a heretic!" he shouted, slamming his arm down at Ramza.

"Eeeeyarrrgh!" Ramza cried out, his sword arcing with his own desperation move.

In a rush of sweat and steel, the two rushed past each other, their strikes cutting deep and final. Hashmalum now sported a killing cut across his chest, gushing red blood all over the rug of the conference room. But Ramza had not gone unscathed. Hashmalum's final attack had broken throug Alma's MBarrier spell and torn into his shoulder, causing a jagged gash that shone with leaking blood.

His legs buckled, and he fell.

"No!" Alma wailed, tears coming to her eyes. "Brother!"

The Zodiac beast Hashmalum grunted, tossing a bitter look at his opponent. "Well met, young warrior," he admitted through gnashed teeth, coughing up a glob of blood. "But know that others will continue the work I've started. You'll...never...rest...in...peace." And with that, Hashmalum slumped over, sending up a wave of dust and debris from the seldon-swept stone of the conference room floor.

The beast's body began to glow with yellow light, crackling with arcane energies. Alma squinted her eyes as flashes of saffron bolted all about her, though the Zodiac beams never posed any sort of threat to her. With a explosion of energy that shook the entire castle, Hashmalum was removed from this world, its death rattle fading into the night. All that was left was the single 'Leo' stone, falling harmlessly to the floor, where it remained as still as a holiday trinket.

Almost as soon as Hashmalum's body disappeared, Alma rushed over to Ramza, her skirts swishing back and forth with her strides. Grabbing onto his body, she tried to hoist him back to his feet, even as he sputtered with pain. "Brother Ramza, don't die!" she begged him, shaking his weakening form. "I need you!"

Ramza grimaced, trying to look up at his sister. "A-Alma, I..." he stammered, reaching out to try and stroke her face. Then, his hand fell limp, and he slumped over in Alma's arms, no longer able to support his own weight. Ramza Beoulve lay quietly on the cold conference room floor, unmoving, just as the slaughtered soldiers surrounding them.

A single tear fell from Alma's eye, as she bore witness to Ramza's fading consciousness. "Brother, we were going to go to Gariland," she said, smiling almost to herself. "You were going to teach be to be a fighter, so I could be of more use to you. We were going to always be together from then on." Her smile turned into a grimace, as her eyes squeezed shut to force out some salty tears. "Ramza, my only love, please come back to me. Please..."

A sudden vibration took place within the folds of Alma's skirt, and she raised her teary gaze to look at her eye. After a moment's hesitation, she reached into her skirt pocket and pulled up the Zodiac stone bearing the sing of 'Pisces.' The bauble was glowing with blue light, contrasting with the red-pink skirt Alma wore. It seemed to speak to her, casting suggestions into her mind as easily as the flow of the river.

"...you sympathies with my heart?" Alma asked the stone, responding to the sorrow she felt radiating from it. "...yes, of course. Please bring back Ramza Beoulve. It is all I ask."

She stood up in a rustle of skirts, and held out her palms with the Pisces stone sitting atop them. The stone began to float away from her, its glowing power dragging up Ramza's body with tendrils of cerulean energy. Wrapped in light, he was brought upright as a single sparkle of blue light fell from the ceiling, like an angel's tear drop. The sparkle of light entered Ramza, splashing against his chest in a burst of blue droplets that dissipated into the musty castle air.

As Alma beheld this miracle, Ramza was standing on his own now, his armor shining as if forged yesterday. The gash on his shoulder had disappeared completely, a small sheen of blue light surrounding it. Ramza's eyes opened, carrying a serenity almost unknown in this age of war and strife. "Alma," he said in that calm, powerful voice of his, reaching out a hand to her, and it was all the confirmation the young cleric needed.

"Ramza!" she cried, throwing herself onto him in a flurry of skirts and petticoats. "Oh Ramza, you've returned!" She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in the boy's shoulder as he slowly placed his hands on her hips. "I'm so glad!"

Ramza nodded through his relief, his sister snug in his arms at last. "Seems the Zodiac Stones have power for good, instead on just evil," he wondered out loud, more to himself than to Alma.

"Whatever miracle this is, I'll not shun it!" Alma said, pulling back a bit to look her brother in the face. "Brother, never leave me again!"

Ramza stroked her face softly, pulling back a lock of hair that had fallen into her eyes. "Through the fires and hell of the Lion War, I will always return to you," he told her, his eyes firm with resolution.

Alma smiled through her tears, pressing her body against Ramza's. Gazing into eyes both hard and gentle, a sudden impulse overtook her, and she began leaning forward. Ramza's eyes widened with surprise, but Alma was already rising on tip-toe, stroking his cheek with her hand. A fraction of a second later, and Alma had ensnared Ramza's lips with her own, tasting her brother for the very first time.

Ramza stiffened a bit from his sister's kiss, clearly caught off-guard. Yet soon, on his own accord, he began to kiss her back, their lips melding together in an embrace far outstripping the propriety of noble siblings. His hands on her hips tightened, and he pulled Alma to him, feeling her gentle weight even through his armor. Her body felt warm and curvy, the gentle embrace of womanhood suiting his sister nicely.

When at last they parted, Alma finally remembered herself, and her lips transitioned from their former pucker to an expression of abject embarrassment. "I'm...I'm sorry, brother!" she stammered, a hot flush forming on her face. "It..,it was just what I felt at the moment!"

Ramza's face was surprisingly calm; he was just smiling gently. There was no rebuke, no reprimand for forsaking the bonds of brother and sister. Somehow, he had already seen into her heart, the feelings growing for him there. "I know, Alma," he told her, clutching onto her hips tighter. "We'll talk about it later."

Alma blinked for a moment at Ramza's hard-yet-gentle eyes, and found a love that was only challenged by her own. And then, among the rotting courses of the slaughter soldiers, they embraced again, a lone light of love that shone the brightest in the kingdom of Ivalice.

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'Fin'


End file.
